The essential part of any tannery waste audit is assessing the efficiency of existing operations carried out during the leather manufacturing process. Typically, tannery staff have a good idea of, and comparatively accurate figures on the waste resulting from specific operations such as fleshing, splitting, trimming or chrome tanning. Only rarely, however, they have a proper overview of the entire range of waste generated. Thus, when considering various cleaner technologies or waste treatment systems, having access to a complete computation of the overall mass balance certainly makes it easier for a tanner facing arduous choices. Dialogue with environmental authorities is also simpler if such figures are readily available. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive computation of a mass balance and the efficiency of the leather manufacturing process for a tannery, seen as a closed entity. The calculations are deliberately based on operations in a hypothetical tannery processing bovine hides and producing upper leather for shoes. With minor exceptions (batch washing instead of continuous rinsing, splitting in lime, roller coating), it follows the conventional process.

Utilization and/or safe disposal of sludges generated in the course of effluent treatment still represents a great challenge; worldwide many methods have been explored and proposed. This report describes the attempt made under UNIDO Regional Programme in South-East Asia to test another path. The idea was to convert the hazardous tannery sludge  into an inert, physically stable mass, with very low leachability and sufficient strength to allow making building materials like nonfired bricks for fencing or for landfilling or land reclamation. Solidification  (cementation) was achieved by mixing the sludge with various materials to form a solid product hoping that immobilisation/chemical stabilisation) will also be achieved.

Conventional treatment of tannery effluents does not affect the TDS content (colloquially: salinity); they remain unsuitable for lifestock watering or irrigation which, especially in arid areas, represents a great loss of natural resource. This paper reports on successful irrigation trials with treated effluent from a CETP servicing a cluster of tanneries processing wet blue and crust leather into finished leather and with TDS not exceeding 5000 mg/l and chlorides not exceeding 900 mg/l. Eventually a plot of barren land was converted into a pleasant park-like area.This paper, based on the project implemented by a women-only team, provides information on saline resistant plants and assess their growth properties; and the impact that the continuous application of treated effluent had on the soil and ground water.

Utilization or safe disposal of sludge generated by tannery effluent treatment plants poses a challenge worldwide; landfill disposal should be considered only in case when no other viable option is possible.  Unfortunately, in some areas and/or developing countries properly designed and constructed landfills are not available either.
With the technical assistance of UNIDO, CETP-Ranitec in Ranipet, Tamil Nadu, India, established a low cost pilot scale demonstration landfill in October 1997, the first of its kind in the region. The report describes requirements for a safe landfill disposal and practical recommendations for replication.